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Members of the Manning family have primarily relied on their arms to create the most celebrated multigenerational dynasty in football history, but Arch Manning showed he can also get it done on the ground during a recent game that spawned a pretty mind-boggling stat involving Tyreek Hill.
It was pretty safe to assume Arch Manning was going to spend the vast majority of the 2024 college football season riding the bench for a Texas Longhorns team that has one of the best quarterbacks in the country in the form of Quinn Ewers, but he was forced to step up when the man who started Saturday’s game against UTSA strained his abdomen during the second quarter.
There’s currently no concrete timetable for Ewers’ return, but Texas fans have plenty of reasons to believe his backup will be a more than adequate stopgap when you consider his replacement passed for 223 yards and four touchdowns in a game where he also took care of business on his own with a 67-yard score on the ground.
🚨@ArchManning 67-yards to the 🏠
The @TexasFootball QB makes a defender miss & clocks 20.7 MPH to the end zone💨
Will the #HookEm star crack our Top 5 Fastest Players this week? #ReelSpeed pic.twitter.com/rx4yapV2W3
— Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) September 15, 2024
That was the longest rushing TD a Longhorns QB has recorded since Vince Young took an 80-yard run to the house in 2005 (the Longhorns legend gave Arch a shoutout), and Cooper Manning poked fun at himself and other members of the family who don’t possess the same prowess on the ground by saying his son got his speed from his mom.
As the above tweet of that impressive run notes, Manning reached a top speed of 20.7 MPH on the ground while making his way toward the endzone. How fast is that?
Well, Tyreek Hill—who is widely considered the fastest wide receiver in the NFL—reached a top speed of 20.27 MPH on the 80-yard touchdown he hauled in before busting out the handcuffs celebration in Week 1, which is the highest he’s been recorded at two weeks into the season (Nico Collins leads the pack so far in 2024 after hitting 21.89 during a 55-yard reception).
There’s a very good chance Hill ends up surpassing that mark, but Arch’s legs are certainly nothing to scoff at.